Durkheim work was focused on how traditional and modern societies function. His theories were focused on social facts defined as the norms, values and structure of society. His theories were focused in these external factors rather than the internal things like desire and motivation. According to him, collective consciousness, values and rules are critical for a society to function. Durkheim theories are of functionalism, anomie and division of labor. Functionalism: emphasizes a societal equilibrium. If something happens to disrupt the social equilibrium, the society adjusts to be in a stable state. According to Durkheim, society is a function of interrelated parts, where no one part can function without the other. These parts make the whole society. If one part changes, it has an impact on the society as a whole. For example, the state provides public education for children. The family of the children pays taxes which the state uses for public education. The children...
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Emile Durkheim Contributions Emile Durkheim is the philosopher who can best help us to understand why capitalism makes us richer and yet frequently more miserable. He was born in 1858 in the little French town of near the German border. Before he was 40, Durkheim was appointed to a powerful and prestigious position as a professor at Paris. He lived through the immense rapid transformation of France, from a largely traditional agricultural society to an urban industrial economy. He could see that his country was getting richer, that capitalism was extraordinarily productive and in certain ways that it was also liberating. But what particularly struck him, and became the focus of his entire scholarly career was that, the economic system was doing something very peculiar to people's minds it was quite literally driving them to suicide in ever-increasing numbers. This was the immense insight unveiled in Durkheim's most important work “suicide”, published in 1897. T...